CS Bakersfield Has Unique Hold on Gender Issue

All colleges and universities have to wrestle with gender equity. Cal State Bakersfield does that literally.

Because Title IX, a civil rights statute, requires that schools offer a proportionate amount of women’s sports opportunities to men’s, and because of the fragile status of many athletic department budgets, schools find themselves having to drop men’s sports to add women’s sports.

At Bakersfield, which has the national champion men’s basketball team but no women’s basketball team, the situation is magnified.

No one knows that better than wrestling Coach T.J. Kerr.

“I think every men’s non-revenue sport is in real trouble,” he said. “I think many people look at the situation and say, ‘Maybe we really don’t need swimming or wrestling.’ Look at what UCLA has gone through with their water polo, swimming and gymnastics programs.”

At last week’s NCAA convention, men’s gymnastics was maintained as an NCAA-level sport, despite a drastic decline over the last 10 years to 30 schools participating. According to NCAA rules, at least 40 schools must participate in a sport for it to be recognized.

But that was a rare reprieve.

Despite Bakersfield’s prominence in wrestling--it has had seven wrestlers win NCAA championships and five Olympians--Kerr knows his program could be cut without him having much say in the decision.

So he formed a plan to incorporate women freestylers into the men’s program so that wrestling can become a gender-neutral sport.

If the school has both men and women competing, the sport has less chance of being cut because of gender equity.

Kerr stresses that he is not just trying to save men’s wrestling. Rather, he said, he is trying to promote women’s wrestling, which would strengthen the sport.

Women’s wrestling has been on the rise. At the Sunkist Freestyle Open two years ago, 52 women participated. Last year, that number increased to 225.

There are several colleges, most notably Nebraska, that include women’s wrestling as a club-level sport. But Bakersfield, ranked 13th in the nation, would be the first NCAA school to have women on its wrestling team.

The school cleared the way for that in December, when it granted conditional permission for women to have the same athletic privileges as men.

What does that mean in practical terms?

--The women who are part of the “Cal State Bakersfield Wrestling Club” will have access to the team’s practice facilities, trainers, academic assistance programs, medical insurance, priority registration and can practice as part of the team.

--Before the women can practice, the male members have to complete a sensitivity training course to become aware of behavior that could lead to a sexual harassment complaint.

--Women can practice against the men but can only compete against other women in meets.

Kerr said he hopes that, in the future, women will be allowed to compete against men if they so desire.

As it is, he has 10 women joining his team, and none are on scholarship. Deciding who will get the scholarships next season will be difficult.

Among the women is Jessica McDowell, the women’s national champion in the 154-pound weight class. She finished eighth at the women’s World Championships last year. Dianna Wesendunk, who has won two world championships, has enrolled at Bakersfield this semester and is expected to join.

How good are the women?

Rating them is difficult because there are few women’s events.

Currently, there is only the Sunkist Freestyle Open, the U.S. National Open and the California-USA Wrestling State Championships, which, for women, is also open to wrestlers outside California.

Bakersfield’s women have competed in exhibition matches as part of the men’s meet against Arizona State and in last week’s Bakersfield Country Classic Invitational.

“People ask me, am I doing this to save the sport (as a men’s program)?” Kerr said.

“Maybe I thought that once, but not anymore. I’m interested. Women wrestlers are more technically oriented than men--sometimes they don’t have the sheer power. It’s a neat thing to experience.”

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Leslie Ferguson, a senior center for Redlands’ women’s basketball team, set a single-game school record by scoring 35 points on Jan. 7 in an 82-53 victory over Southwestern, Tex. She shared the previous record of 31 with former teammate Lisa Wewers. Ferguson also set a school record by getting 25 rebounds against Elmira College on Dec. 29. That added to her school-record of 840 rebounds.

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Derrick Clark, the leading scorer and rebounder for Cal Lutheran, has decided to leave the team and accept an offer to play professionally in Australia. Clark, 23, graduated in December with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Criminal Justice. He was averaging 20 points and six rebounds.

College Division Notes

Teri Collins has been selected as the women’s soccer coach and Cheryl Aschenbach as the interim softball coach at Redlands. . . . Jane Jacobs, Redlands’ women’s volleyball coach, announced her resignation to pursue teaching interests.

Dr. Carroll B. Land, athletic director and baseball coach at Point Loma Nazarene, was named President of the American Baseball Coaches Assn. on Jan. 7. . . .UC San Diego’s new Recreation, Intramural and Athletics Center, which cost more than $32 million and seats 5,000, was opened Jan. 9. It is considered one of the best among Division III schools and will be the site for the Tritons’ basketball and volleyball games.

Many Southland teams are doing well this basketball season. In Division II, Cal Poly Pomona is ranked No. 13 and is off to its best start. New Coach Tom Marshall starts five players who were not on last year’s roster and is 13-3. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams for Cal State Los Angeles got off to their best starts. The men’s team started 9-2 and the women’s team started 11-3. . . . In Division III, the La Verne men’s basketball team started at a school-best 8-3. . . . In the NAIA, Concordia College in Irvine is 17-1.